Community Forums

wa8yxm · 07-12-2015, 05:46 AM

I think I see what he wants to do.. In the old days convertrs consisted of the following. Shore power comes in on the left
--Transformer--Rectifer-(Optional filter)--REGULATOR---Battery

This is a good sold HEAVY and expensive by today's standards convertr design...

With this design (Which is generally not used much) he could hook the solar panels in where the optional filter is and it woudl work quite well.

Today's units however are not built that way for themost part. Today they use Switching power supplies which means there is no transformer (or a very small on) power is switched on and off to control the voltage.

No real way to insert the solar power into such a system without doing damage as the switching REQUIRES incoming power be AC.

Gilleshps · 07-12-2015, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by varankins3

I should know the wattage of my panels but I always look at how many amps are coming in. I get 12+ amps per set during the peak hours here in Colorado. If we didn't watch so much darn tv all day 24 amps would be a fine haul. But we do and the tv draws about 8-9 (with the satellite receiver) so that uses up one set of panels all by itself

. Since we watch until the wee hours of the morning I will feel more comfortable having this one more set so I can start the evening with a full tank (batteries that is!) Plus let me have my little chest freezer going

It sounds like you have about 400watts. Two sets of 100w panels or close?

I full time on 260 watts but don't watch much TV, so it works for now. If I have the 12v 19" TV and satellite on I draw about 5amps. Add the laptop @ another 5amps and I'm consuming all the power coming in. So another 200 watts or so would be great if I was inside all day.

What kind of controller did you use? Also what wire size?

varankins3 · 07-12-2015, 10:37 PM

my panels and controllers and the rest of the hardware come from Global Solar. My controllers are outdated already as they are only rated 16 amps. I have 2 new ones coming that can handle 30 amps. In theory I would have at least 18 amps coming in (our installer is going to tie 3 panels into each controller) so plenty of room for growth if I need it. I have no idea what size of wire he is using but he knows his stuff when it comes to wires and batteries. He found out our original battery bank was not wired correctly and the size of the wires was too lightweight. He is my hero